From the Crimea to a Prison in Naples

[dante]

Crimea medal clasp Sebastopol, Turkish war medal (named to Sergeant W Coleman, Land Transport Corps (LTC) and unnamed Italian independence medal 
William Coleman was born in Southwark in approximately 1835 and enlisted into the army 14th October 1854
He was noted as 5ft 6ins tall
Joined the 13th Light Dragoons in the Crimea on the 1st August 1855 (The regiment had taken part in the charge of light brigade on the 25 October 1854).
Sent to Scutari on the 10th October 1855 and noted as being in hospital from the 24th of October.
Transferred to the 12th Battalion, Land Transport Corps (Military Train) on the 31st October 1855.  
He deserted from the LTC on his return to the Curragh in January 1857.
We next find him as a volunteer with Garibaldi’s British Legion. 
The Roll of Volunteers has him living at 9 Peters Lane, John St, Smithfield, London. Height 5ft 6ins, with previous service in the Land Transport Corps.
The British Legion (Italian: Legione Britannica) was a military corps composed of English and Scottish volunteers, who in 1860 joined Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Expedition of the thousand and fought for the unification of Italy, together with the Italian Redshirts, as part of their Southern Army against the Bourbon Army of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Officially they were "Garibaldi Excursionists" to avoid any problems of diplomatic appearance.
The Legion landed in Naples on 15 October 1860 and took part in a fight, under the command of John Whitehead Peard in Sant'Angelo up to the wall of Capua, where two volunteers were killed and eight wounded.
On the 29th October while the Legion was moving from the Volturno to Teano (approximately 20miles), they had received no food or water rations and approval from Colonel Peard to seek what they can on the march.
According to contemporary newspaper accounts, five privates of the Legion including William went out to a deserted house and took chickens and a pig, this was reported to Garibaldi who ordered the five to be shot. 
On appeal the five were given two-year prison sentence at the he Vicaria Prison of Naples, the largest of the Kingdom, which was housed in the cellars of Castel Capuano.
They were held for a month at Vicaria living on a diet of horse beans boiled in salt and then moved to the hospital of San Francisco, they were held for three months until an appeal was undertaken by the Officers and NCOs of the Legion to King Victor Emmanuel.
They were released in January 1861 but refused pay and bonus and sent home penniless.
 Sadly this is where we lose William….there are a number of William Coleman noted in or around London during this period, a Cabinet maker, Coachman and maker of medical instruments... nor can we confirm the1865 Italian independence medal, but we do know that for all his trials and tribulations...his medals survived.